Simi Linton has been at the forefront of disability studies since its early days. While on the faculty at Hunter College she wrote the groundbreaking study of this field, Claiming Disability: Knowledge and Identity. She was awarded a Mary E. Switzer Distinguished Fellowship by the US Department of Education National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research, 1995-1996, which allowed her to complete this work.

She has been the Co-Director of the University Seminar in Disability Studies at Columbia University since 2003.

Claiming Disability: Knowledge and Identity
New York University Press, 1998
In series: Cultural Front Michael Berube, General Editor
ISBN: 0-8147-5134-2  
Hear Simi Linton read a short excerpt from Claiming Disability here. (text version)

"Long overdue, Claiming Disability both carves out a new field of study, and introduces and educates readers to disability studies as a vibrant space of intellectual work. Linton weaves in and out of disciplines—queer studies, traditional educational psychology, literary criticism, critical legal studies—without a blink. Both precise and expansive, she declares and defines disability studies in ways that are systematic, theoretically engaging, and policy-relevant." Michelle Fine, City University of New York

"Claiming Disability is the most comprehensive book in disability studies to come along yet. It wisely defines terms and concepts, linking them to and questioning the dominant issues in identity politics and multiculturalism, while mapping a direction for future study. A must-read for anyone seriously thinking about the body and body politics in the postmodern era." Lennard Davis, author of Enforcing Normalcy: Disability, Deafness and the Body

"Provides a broadened and enriched definition of disability, and its author unfolds a compelling way to evaluate Special Education."
Laurie R. Lehman, Educators for Urban Minorities